Water tariffs should be set in accordance to principles set out in the Water Tariff Bylaw (2013).

Adequate water tariffs should allow the financial sustainability of water service providers by ensuring the recovery of their operational costs while balancing it with the income structure and affordability of the consumers.

In the approval of water tariffs, the WSRC will make sure that water prices conform to the following principles:

It is true that water is just there as a natural resource through rain during the winter months and groundwater all year round. But think about what is needed in order to have water delivered to your house. Your local Water Service Provider has to set up the infrastructure for it including house connections, pipes, reservoirs, pumps, water treatment facilities and meters. All those parts of the water supply system have to be maintained, as well. Besides, there is staff and administration behind in order to guarantee the service delivery to your house. Therefore, the price you pay for water is not for the water itself but rather for the water delivery to your house.

The WSP are required by the Tariff Bylaw to regularly review their prices. The provision of treated drinking water and the collection and treatment of our wastewater comes at a cost. The revised tariffs aim at recovering costs associated with the water service to customers, such as costs of operation and maintenance. As cost structures change continuously due to factors like inflation, staff costs increases, etc., tariffs need to be adjusted accordingly. By achieving cost coverage, the new tariffs allow sustainable water supply and capital investment in water infrastructure to increase in the years ahead to guarantee quality water supply and to meet high environmental standards.

A water tariff is a price assigned to water supplied by a water service provider through mostly piped networks to its customers. Water tariffs are not charged for water itself, but to recover the costs of water treatment, water storage, transporting it to customers, as well as billing and collection. Prices paid for water itself are different from water tariffs.

Definition Water Price:

A water price is a more general term and depends greatly with regard to bottled water, tanker trucks, water service providers, irrigation water or direct abstraction. Some of those water prices are set through market mechanisms and others are set by administrative processes like the water tariffs of water service providers.

If you have to pay more for your water services, it means that your WSP was working deficitary before. Being able to cover their costs, water supply providers will assure better and more sustainable water supply and waste water services for their customers. All fees collected will go directly to improve water/waste water services.

Who is responsible for setting and regulating the tariffs / prices for water services in Palestine?

The Water Service Providers (WSP) are directly responsible for setting the prices. According to the Water Law 2014, the Water Sector Regulatory Council (WSRC) is responsible for approving water prices after validation against the national legislation. Therefore, all tariffs are set in accordance with Palestinian legislations (i.e. tariff bylaw (1)-2013).